Ontario advances to men’s final against Saskatchewan at M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors

Ontario, skipped by Mat Camm of Ottawa, survived a resilient Newfoundland/Labrador squad skipped by Colin Thomas of St. John’s, 6-4 in this morning’s semi-final to advance to tonight’s M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior men’s final
(5:30 pm MT/7:30 pm ET, live on TSN) against unbeaten Saskatchewan.

After Camm jammed in the first end on a hit for three, allowing Thomas to steal a single, his Ottawa Curling Club team responded with three in the second for a 3-1 lead.

Team Ontario at the 2011 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors(Photo by: Michael Burns)

Although Thomas clawed his way back to even the match, with a single in the third end and another steal of one in the fourth, Camm took control with a deuce in the fifth end.

The game suddenly turned defensive, with three blank ends, before Thomas was forced to one in nine. In the 10th end, Thomas’s last stone, a guard trying to protect a Newfoundland/Labrador counter in the four-foot, overcurled, allowing Camm a straight hit to clinch the win.

“We started off strong. We had a chance in the first to take three,” said Camm, about the miss. “We had another chance in the second and took that one. Then, they played great for the third and fourth ends, before we took our deuce in the fifth.

“I think they wanted to make it a three-end game against us, very smart on their part but we pulled through in the last two ends.”

Now, he’ll face Braeden Moskowy of Regina, whose Callie Curling Club team was a perfect 12-0 in the round robin to nail down first place and earn a bye to the final. In Saskatchewan’s 9-7 round robin decision over Ontario, he came back from a 6-3 deficit after six ends to record the victory. Moskowy finished third in last year’s championship in Sorel-Tracy.

Ontario has won nine Canadian junior men’s titles since 1950, including last year by Jake Walker, who had defeated the previously-unbeaten Camm team in the provincial final.

Saskatchewan has won 13 men’s titles, the last by Kyle George in 2005 in Fredericton. George also went on to claim the world junior title in Pinerolo, Italy that year.